Welcome to MMORPGamer.

Today marks the hundredth issue for this fine column. It's been held up by many writers throughout the years, and I'm glad to be counted among them.

Happy Hundredth to everyone; Readers and former columnists alike. This issue features the first edition of the O RLY? YA RLY! and Media Grotto sections.

O RLY? YA RLY! features a look at the underbelly of the MMO community. The community is capable of doing some great things but often falls prey to the mob mentality and pulls off many dumb feats. O RLY? will look at those times when developer and player alike go one can short of a six pack and leave the rest of us scratching our heads. It'll also feature, like this week, acts of the community that go above and beyond regular game playing.

I've also noticed that the columns with pictures are more attractive. The Media Grotto is my answer to that, as it will feature screenshots, concept art, and propaganda from MMORPGs across the board. This week features Stargate Worlds, and it looks great from the new screenshots.

Without further ado, the news:

On Monday, The 59th Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards honored numerous of games and a few of the top MMOs. Accepting awards for "Development of Massively Multiplayer Online Graphical Role Playing Games" were Laura Naviaux for SOE's EverQuest, Mike Morhaime for Blizzard's World of Warcraft, and Don Daglow for AOL/Time Warner's Neverwinter Nights.

For "User Generated Content/Game Modification," Bill Budge accepted for EA's Pinball Construction, John Carmack for Id Software's Quake, and Philip Rosedale for Linden Labs's Second Life. Pictured from left to right are Daglow, Budge, Carmack, Naviaux, Rosedale, and Morhaime.

In my own unofficial Goofy Developer's Awards (GDA), Daglow wins for Most Accurate Kingpin Costume, Budge for Most Likely to Have His Face Stay That Way, Carmack for Geekiest Feathered Hairstyle, Naviaux for Most RL Looking, Rosedale for Poutiest Lips, and Morhaime for Most Likely to Be Punted Like a Gnome.

With the release of Pirates of the Burning Sea on the horizon, Sony has begun preboarding for anyone who preorders the game. Players receive a key with their preorder that will let them play with characters up to level 20 and keep their characters after the launch.

The official site for PotBS has a FAQ for players who might be confused by the process. The FAQ goes into surprising detail, providing customer support links for Direct2Drive, Amazon, and the Sony store.

CVG met with Jeff Kaplan, World of Warcraft's lead designer, to discuss Wrath of the Lich King. The new expansion features a new continent in Azeroth named Northrend, where the Lich King resides.

Kaplan speaks in excited tones about the entry points that players have to choose from. While the Burning Crusade featured only one access point, Wrath features two for each faction. The Horde will choose from a Forsaken city in Howling Fjord or Warsong Fortress in Borean Tundra. The latter features Garrosh Hellscream, son of Grom from Warcraft III. Kaplan doesn't elaborate much on the Alliance towns, instead saying that the Fjord entrance is big and full of battle and the Borean entrance is huge.

The full interview is available here.

Gravity, the company behind Ragnarok Online, has been busy this year. After unveiling L5, the company took some time to talk about its upcoming game, Requiem: Bloodymare.

Gravity has been hard at work on Requiem for four years. The game uses the Havok engine that most players know from BioShock and Half-Life 2. Peter Kang, CEO of Gravity, says: "Requiem isn't a game for kids; this is for mature players that are looking for hardcore content that conjures up their deepest nightmares and fears." It sounds to be the complete opposite of its cousin, Ragnarok.

World of Warcraft guild Eagles Pride [sic] of Malygos server created their own raid encounter. A raid of 25 1st-level Tauren took on one level 70 mage. The encounter used a series of scripts and macros to make it more like a PvE encounter, and the mage was in gear that made him more vulnerable to the cows.

The WoW community isn't full of trolls after all. That's a surprise to me. A video of the encounter from the villain's perspective is available here.

These four screenshots were delivered fresh after CES from Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment.

There it all is. The updates to the archiving process are slow in coming but will be implemented soon. Until then, I will continue tweaking the column in order to make O RLY? and the Grotto as awesome as they can be. Let me know what you think of them by either commenting on the forums or sending a letter.

I'd also like to mention that I'm still accepting letters for the column. The lack of letters is the only reason there haven't been any in the column. Send me a letter with your thoughts on 2007 in MMO terms, and I'll put it up here and respond.

Until then,
Jake Miller (mail me)